Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky Episode #06 (Mania.com)

I guess the one thing trying to make an omelet and learning to be a good marksman have in common is that both take lots of practice. So, how well do Aoi and Manami fare when their target is Kio?

What They SayElis is having more frequent episodes of her mating season. Eventually, she drags Kio's movie club into the mix and starts to turn their completely normal film into a very "adult" love romance. Meanwhile, Aoi and Manami visit the Virtual Room on Catiaship. The two of them are capable of virtually creating any situation there, but will they be able to resist their overflowing desires?

The Review!Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)So, this time we get the "Charlie's Angels" parody opening. Someone on staff really likes old TV shows.

Anyway, to get serious, the Catians are analyzing the fight that took place on board the Androala, and have now discovered that the Dogisians are involved. Oh, did I mention that they're doing this analysis while completely naked in a sauna? (The Assistaroids are creatively deployed to provide censorship instead of magical steam or incredibly bright lights with no apparent source). It appears that the Dogisians are not supposed to open relations with any other worlds, because of a blockade imposed by the Orsonians (what? Now we have a "Mork and Mindy" reference? Someone really likes old TV shows).

Back on Earth, Kio is telling Elis about his school's movie club (of which he's a member) and their plan to shoot a movie with aliens in it. Since he has a genuine alien with him, he asks Elis to appear, which she gladly does. Kio gets his stuff packed together, with help from his own Assistaroid, Sadayan (I guess everyone is going to get one, eh?). Unfortunately for Kio (and only unfortunately for oblivious weakling harem anime male leads like him), when he mentions that he might open up a "virgin" tape to record the footage on, Elis nearly jumps him at the mention of the word virgin. This is one catgirl in heat, with only breeding on her mind. Elis' chance at procreative bliss is interrupted by the sound of gunfire. Not directed at them�"it's Aoi and Manami engaged in target practice in the front yard (which must really make the neighbors happy). Aoi is even showing Manami a better way to employ a pistol out on a mission, how to reload very effectively without using a speed loader, which would show in your pocket and let your enemy know how many bullets you are carrying.

Kio comes racing down and notes how it probably scares the neighbors (as I called it) and furthermore how it is not permitted to fire guns out in the yard in Japan. Manami counters that they're not "in" Japan, but Kio is still not happy about it. Elis, back to her senses for the moment, realizes that the pair need someplace they can practice without causing trouble.

Time to cut to the Dog Leader, who notes that her forces lost more than the Cats did in their little skirmish. She promises however, that she will run the Cats off of the planet.

Back to Manami and Aoi, they've gone out for lunch at a restaurant, where Manami is providing (questionable) dating advice to Aoi, in furtherance of her promise to help Aoi get Kio's affection (why Aoi would be interested in Kio is still one of the mysteries of science, beyond even advanced alien knowledge). The next day/later that day/as if it matters, Manami is back to target practice, but with only an airgun, which leads to great frustration for her. Kio earlier called her a gun nut, and he was more than on the money. Aoi, on the other hand, is trying to practice cooking, with predictably disastrous results. What they both really need are better places to practice. This is when Chaika, almost the only Catian without a huge bust, comes along and offers to take Aoi and Manami to a place where they can practice with no consequences.

Meanwhile, Kio and Elis are out with Movie Club. The members there are not entirely happy, though, since Elis doesn't look like an alien at all (with Itokazu the teacher looking on and nodding vigorously in agreement). But when the members ask if they can see a UFO fly around, Elis helps out by having her ship come and fly above their heads, letting them shoot a real ship with no special effects. The problem is that when they look at the footage, it looks like the ship is being held up by strings. Strings? Elis notes that those are special emissions caused by slow speed flying, but the effect is, to say the least, disheartening to the Movie Club members. When one club member suggests they abandon the science fiction movie they wanted to shoot in favor of a pure love story, that, unfortunately for Kio, sets off Elis, who wants to make little kittens with him right there and then, to the consternation of Ms. Itokazu and the embarrassed, but intense, interest of the female members of the Movie Club.

Returning to Manami and Aoi, they've been taken to the Catian mother ship by Chaika and brought into what is basically a holodeck (it even looks like the holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation), where they can do their things (cooking and shooting) without having to worry about wasting stuff. Chaika notes how this device is very useful for Catians when they hit their 16 year mating cycles, which causes Manami and Aoi to blush when they figure out what that fully entails. Chaika even offers to let them try out that aspect of the system, and kindly offers to input Kio's data. They both strongly deny any desire to do so. But when they actually try out the system, Aoi creating a kitchen, Manami a gun range, they both wind up asking the system for a replica of Kio. Aoi just wants someone to taste her cooking.

Manami, however, asks the system to force this Kio to answer her questions honestly, and she hears more than she bargained for when she asks this Kio replica, which is pretty accurate as it's based on all of the data Elis has gathered, what Kio thinks of Elis, Aoi, and herself. Especially herself, and the apparent revelation that Kio once had feelings for Manami, but abandoned them when he heard her speaking to "Jack" on the phone, believing Jack to be a boy and her boyfriend, no less. This leads into a long memory flashback for Manami. After the end of it, back in reality, Aoi tries to offer some of her cooking to Kio, who tastes it, but says the flavor is "unique" (not a compliment in this case). Aoi asked Chaika what's wrong, saying that the fake Kio in the holographic chamber liked her fried eggs, Chaika notes that that was not real, and that the Kio there only said what you wanted it to say. Manami then wonders about her own fake Kio, that perhaps it too just told her what she wanted it to say.

Back on the mother ship, it appears that Elis' mating season is starting to get in the way of her mission, and therefore she's going to have to take some little blue pills that will end it. Alas, poor Elis, no first mated bliss for her.

In Summary:Largely a fluffy and meaningless episode, we get to see deeper in Manami's heart and her buried feelings for Kio. Through the use of something that is basically a direct copy of the holodeck technology from Star Trek, Manami gets to question a replica of Kio about his feelings for her, and winds hearing a lot more than she may have wanted to. So, while Manami maybe saying a lot about wanting to help Aoi get Kio, under the surface, it would appear her feelings for him have not gone away at all. There are a few hints this episode of deeper threads resembling something like a plot, as the Dog Leader appears briefly to assert yet again that she will drive the Cats off the planet. It also appears the Cat Cult and the Catians may have aligned their interests, to the detriment of the Dogs and the governments secretly allied to them. Don't expect anything to happen soon, however, as next episode looks like the obligatory beach swimsuit outing.